Hooi-Ying Zhang 张海莹 (they/them) also known as Ash is a Rotterdam-based artist, storyteller, autodidact K.R.U.M.P. and Popping dancer, performer and researcher. Through intimate interdisciplinary works, they try to dissect, deconstruct and research almost ungraspably large topics like love and loneliness through personal stories, dance, poetry and visual arts with a vulnerable and critical lense. Reoccurring themes are; the Asian diaspora identity (learning through the body and its movements, by seeing the body and its movements as an archive for the Asian diaspora identity), creating liminal community through collective creation, as a way to build towards a more community-driven mindset. And how this research can unfold into a non-western way of storytelling.
Hooi-Ying wants to give people a moment to reflect. Bring forward the tangibility of the complex Chinese diaspora identities, and the interconnectivity between various underrepresented communities and their struggles. Hooi-Ying hopes to empower people and push the idea that through actively being, we can resist larger power structures built to suppress.
Education:
Willem de Kooning | Transformation Design
(22-now)
Technische Universiteit Delft and Erasmus MC | Nanobiology
(19-now)
Performances:
Buitenplaats Briennoord | ‘The Intimate Liminal Space’ | Buitenplaats Briennoord
(19/4/24)
Buitenplaats Briennoord | ‘What else do I have? Symbioscene’ | Major presentation year 2.3
(26/3/24)
Willem de Kooning | ‘A Movement’ | Major presentation year 2.2
(18/12/23)
Theater Rotterdam TR8 | ‘公公’s Jacket’ | Talent Traject
(24/3/23)
Studio de Bakkerij | ‘Dear Dad’ | Popadelic by Connect the Funk
(30/9/23)
Booijmans op Zuid | ‘When You’re Strange’ | Major presentation year 1.3
(1/6/23)
Experience:
Ballpark | Theater Rotterdam
(9/24-now)
Visual Storytellers 2024 | Qissa
(9/24-now)
The Gully District | Concept and Graphic Designer, Event Management and Planning
(5/24-now)
Talent Traject | Theater Rotterdam Jong
(1/24-3/24)
Lab Research Summer Internship | Erasmus MC Urology Department
(6/24-8/24)
Teacher’s Assistent | Technische Universiteit Delft
(9/24-9/22)
Volunteering:
Connect the Funk | Event Management and Planning
(5/23-2/24)
Asian Raisins | Actualiteit Teamleader; Content Creator, Text Checker, Process Managment
(3/21-9/23)